Koyo
by Ciardha
Summary: At the autumn leaf festival after the war Naruto and Sakura comtemplate the changes in their world and their lives. Originally written for Heaven and Earth's autumn writing challenge


Koyo

It was early evening in Konoha, the end of the Koyo Festival. Koyo was the time of peak leaf color, just before most the leaves fell. The family bonfires to welcome the spirits of the departed were lit. After the last rays of the sun had disappeared the village bonfire would be brought to life and the dancing would begin. Some people had already released small floating lanterns with the names of those that were in the spirit world. The lanterns bobbed along in the twilight river- the lights soft motion soon to be echoed by the dancers. Naruto and Sakura watched the the dancing lights from the bridge- including the ones they had set upon the waves.

"What's going to happen next, Naruto?" Sakura's face reflected a mix of emotions, blending happiness and anxiety.

Naruto grinned, "We're getting married, Sakura chan."

"Baka! I know that!" She exclaimed with mild irritation, then her expression softened again. "I meant with the Alliance and our friends..."

Naruto glanced up at the brightly colored leaves still on the trees, and looked thoughtful. "Things are changing, like the colors of these leaves, some people are floating away to new places like that leaf…" He pointed to a leaf caught on an air current on it's way to the ground.

"Sasuke kun."

"Yeah. I hope he can finally find some peace, find out who he really wants to be now."

Sakura nodded. "You never stopped believing you could reach him some way."

"After he thought he wanted everyone dead, I thought that it might take dying with him to reach him. Only in the afterworld…"

Sakura shuddered. "But think what that would have done to all of us left living."

"And especially you, Sakura chan? Yeah, that was selfish of me."

"Not selfish."

"Stupid, then."

Sakura said nothing and looked at him with an unreadable expression.

"Definitely stupid, huh?" He said with a hint of a smile.

Sakura simply moved in close and wrapped her arms around him. Naruto lightly returned the embrace. Then she said softly, "You dying along with Sasuke kun wouldn't have solved anything for the living. Sasuke kun dying and you living might not have solved things for you."

"What about you, Sakura chan. If Sasuke had died and I lived, would that have solved anything for you?"

Sakura stepped back from Naruto, her expression still solemn. "It would have made me feel relived that Sasuke kun would finally be at peace, and make my heart glad that you were still with me."

Naruto's expression echoed hers. "I'm not sure how I would feel if he had died after finally seeing how he had been manipulated all his life by who had power over him. I'm glad he didn't."

"Me too."

"Sakura chan, there's something else I'd like to ask you."

"What?'"

"The talks I've been having with the Alliance are going really good. They want to make this permanent and want to create a new place where people from all the countries can make a new and better world."

"And they want you to be the leader." Sakura's eyes lit up with joy.

"Yes. It would mean leaving Konoha though, would that be too hard for you?" Naruto looked at her with a trace of anxiety. If she didn't want to leave Konoha he would turn down the offer, but that would mean someone else would have to do it. It might be faintly arrogant, but Naruto felt he was the one that should do this. But if not him, perhaps Gaara...

"No, it won't be hard at all." Sakura embraced Naruto again. This time Naruto's arms were firmly around her. She looked up at him with absolute love and trust. "I will be happiest with you, wherever we live."

Naruto looked straight in her eyes "...will always be our home." he murmured. They kissed, first a gentle touching of lips, then with passion, bodies pressed tightly together.

Panting, they finally broke from the kiss. "Well, if any of your fan club was following us, they just got quite a show." Sakura giggled.

"Heh. It's weird. Some of them are fans of you, though Sakura chan."

"Yeah, I know, but why? I'm not anyone special like you, Naruto. I'm-"

"You are special Sakura chan! You helped me more than anyone else."

"Me? No way." She looked at him with firm disbelief, and thought, what about Iruka sensei? Naruto always talked about how Iruka sensei being the first to believe in him changed his life for the better, made him see he had a different and greater path.

"You, Sakura chan. You stood up for my dream even before you loved me. When you believed in me that meant everything to me. It made me even more determined to make it. I wouldn't disappoint my Sakura chan." He smiled but a fierce determination radiated from him.

"Even if you hadn't become Hokage I wouldn't have been disappointed in you. I know you would do something else even better."

"You are still too modest, Sakura chan. You might have thought you were trailing along behind Sasuke and me, but you are amazing. Look at what you've become. You became an even greater medic nin and fighter than Baa chan. And Baa chan says so."

Sakura looked embarrassed. "She brags on me all the time, especially now that she's taken retirement. Tells everyone that-"

"She's the best kunoichi this world has ever known. I know it's true Sakura chan. You are the best." He nodded emphatically at his words, willing her to believe it. He'd convince her someday...

"No, that was your mother. I wish I could have met her. She was amazing." Naruto had told her what he knew of his mother's life, that prompted Sakura to do a full scale investigation for him. Sakura was in awe of Kushina Uzumaki, the loss for Naruto and for Konoha was devastating... What she already was, what she could have been...

"I wish you could have met her too. I wish she and dad could have lived to raise me..."

"I wish that too." Sakura touched his arm and looked straight in his eyes with all the empathy in her heart. He should have had an family, someone should have nurtured him so he wouldn't have suffered such loneliness and the hostility from the adults all alone. I'm glad I fell in love with Naruto. I will do my best to give him all my love and everything else I can- our own family. Sakura blushed lightly before she continued, "I want to give you the family you had taken from you on the night you were born."

Naruto blushed bright red, imagining Sakura pregnant with their child.

"I want to have a baby with you soon. If we live elsewhere, we'll show our children Konoha sometime. The place where we met and fell in love."

Naruto and Sakura moved back into a kiss, this time a short and tender one.

"I'm happy about where we'll be going Sakura chan. It's Whirlpool Country. My mother's country will become a land of ninja again, but this time one of all nations."

"And it's right next to the Land of Waves. Our first real mission. The first place you won people over to the man you've become."

Naruto nodded. They'd have to take a trip there soon, maybe the Alliance would allow their leader and his wife a honeymoon…

Sakura pointed to two small leaves that had drifted onto Naruto's shoulder. "That's us, set loose and landing at our new home." She pulled out a journal from her bag, and gently lay the leaves in between two pages. "Now they'll journey with us."


End file.
